1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel triazine derivative, and further to a liquid crystal composition containing the triazine derivative, an anisotropic material produced by fixing alignment of the liquid crystal composition, and a liquid crystal display device comprising the anisotropic material.
2. Related Art
Liquid crystal materials are employed for producing anisotropic materials in various fields. For example, optical compensation elements having an optically anisotropic layer produced by using liquid crystal materials are employed in liquid crystal display devices of various display modes, for the purpose of canceling coloration of images, and of widening the viewing angles.
In producing an anisotropic material by using a low-molecular-weight liquid crystal, generally, a liquid crystal composition is transferred into a predetermined liquid crystal phase, and then fixed the alignment state. The main stream of the conventional method was such as aligning the liquid crystal material in the nematic phase which is the lowest in the order degree among various liquid crystal phases, and then fixing the alignment. The anisotropic material may, however, cause non-uniformity in the characteristics, and may fail in satisfying required characteristics, due to thermal fluctuation of the nematic phase. For example, a liquid crystal display device comprising an optical compensation element made of the fixed nematic phase may cause leakage of light in the black state, and may fail in satisfying demands for higher image quality, in particular, higher contrast. Aiming at solving this problem, there have been proposed techniques of producing the anisotropic material made of the fixed smectic phase characterized by its smaller thermal fluctuation. Known liquid crystal materials, however, suffer from non-conformities on the producing basis, including too high in the phase transition temperature to the smectic phase, or insufficient solubility into solvent for preparing a coating liquid, and need some improvement.
On the other hand, triazine derivatives having a triazine ring have been employed in various fields, wherein only a few knowledge on the liquid crystallinity, in particular expression performance of smectic phase, has been available (Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication, referred to as “JPA”, No. 2006-89672).